West Bengal demands 344 MW power from Tilaiya UMPP

Maharashtra and TPDL, however, refused to pay the termination fee of around Rs 10 crore of the Tilaiya project, saying they did not want to pay for a project which never took off and that they do not require power from the plant anymore.

New Delhi: The government of West Bengal has asked the centre to allocate 344 Megawatt power from Tilaiya ultra mega power plant (UMPP) after Maharashtra and Tata Power Delhi Distribution Ltd (TPDDL) refused to take power from the project.

Reliance Power had in April terminated the power project after delay in handing over of land by the host state Jharkhand and had said scrapping the project would result in a Rs 360-crore reduction in its planned capital expenditure.

As per PPA norms, 18 procurers of electricity from the plant had to pay Rs 114.43 crore to Reliance Power as termination fee.

Maharashtra and TPDL, however, refused to pay the termination fee of around Rs 10 crore of the Tilaiya project, saying they did not want to pay for a project which never took off and that they do not require power from the plant anymore.

However, only Rs 80.56 crore have been received so far.

The government wants to re-bid the project going ahead and West Bengal wants to tie up for power from plant whenever it becomes operational.

“The West Bengal government has asked for a total allocation of 400 MW from the centre which includes 344 MW from the Tilaiya plant,” an official source said.

According to the official, West Bengal has said it will require power in the 13th plan as the state has ended power purchase agreements with many hydro power projects in the north east due to time and cost overruns.

However, the centre has said it will first approach the existing procurers of the Tilaiya UMPP and if no requirement arises, it will give the power to West Bengal.

Of the 18 procurers, Reliance Infra-backed BSES had earlier expressed interest in buying the power discarded by Maharashtra and TPDDL.Apart from these, other procuring states of the project include Jharkhand, Gujarat, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Bihar.